Today I am joined by Tracey Iceton, author of Sparky: My Barn Owl Tale (May 11th, 2026, Cinnamon Press). A semi-(auto)biographical story, it is described as ‘mesmerising and ambitious work that crosses genres and raises important questions about how we can connect deeply with the more-than-human world.’
Tracey has kindly shared a few words with us all today about the challenges she faced writing her memoir so I do hope you enjoy. Details about Tracey, Sparky: My Barn Owl Tale and upcoming events are available below, including that all important purchase link.
My Greatest Writing Challenge by Tracey Iceton
You’d think, with four books under my publication belt that number five would come easily but Sparky – My Barn Owl Story, despite being my shortest book, has been my greatest challenge.
It’s not that the previous four, my Celtic Colours trilogy (Green Dawn at St Enda’s, Herself Alone in Orange Rain, White Leaves of Peace) and Rock God Complex – the Mickey Hunter Story were undemanding. For all four I had to blend fact and fiction, research extensively the worlds they centred on (the Irish independence struggle; the highs and lows of rock superstardom) and develop voices for protagonists that include Irish schoolboys, a female paramilitary and rock guitarist. There were also disturbing but essential scenes that were traumatising to write. But I found myself facing all these challenges in a more difficult guise for Sparky’s book.
The book is my first foray into memoir, recounting my meeting Sparky, and taking her under my featherless wing. All stories are a ‘telling’, fictionalised to some degree but I believe memoirs should be faithful to the lived experience. Doing that required me to relive some upsetting moments from my own life – at times fearing for Sparky’s welfare – while balancing the needs of the story. Deciding what to include, how much to personally expose myself and others who were/are part of Sparky’s story, was tricky. I wanted to be truthful about what happened but also protect myself and others appropriately, taking into account legal considerations. This meant much deleting and rewriting to strike a balance, leaving certain details vague (e.g. not naming some people/places) while ensuring the writing was clear. Hopefully the end result meets my desire to be honest with enough caution.
By the time I came to write the book I knew a good deal about owls but the writing process revealed, as it often does, knowledge gaps that required research. However, unlike researching for my previous books, I struggled for sources. There are countless volumes on Irish history, culture and conflict, hundreds of rock star biographies but surprisingly few books about owls in captivity. There are plenty about wild owls, many giving interesting details about owls’ eating, mating and living habits, owls’ senses and attributes and I did need to know some of that. There are also books about people caring for wild owls in need that offer up touching accounts of these temporary relationships between human and owl. But I had to search widely for the information on owls’ experiences of life in captivity, a life where owl and human form a more permanent bond, for the fictionalised sections of the book in which I invented Sparky’s life during the five years before I met her. Thankfully I found enough to base these fiction sections on the reality of some captive owls’ lived experiences so although those chapters are speculation they are plausible and representative of how some captive owls have lived with humans.
The greatest challenge though, was writing Sparky. I didn’t want to anthropomorphise her in the mode of Black Beauty – an animal personified with an ‘I/me’ human narrative. I wanted to present her owl’s-eye view. So I opted for a 3rd person narrative focalised through Sparky (like readers looking over her shoulder) and strove to ensure her perspective presented things as they might conceivable appear to owls, given their senses (great night vision, no sense of smell etc.), their nature and instincts: how they live their lives. I played with language too, developing an owl vocabulary and experimenting with ways to convey how owls hear human speech. I’ll never know how the human world appears to owls but I hope I’ve done enough to remind readers that animals don’t live in our world – they live in theirs, we just happen to be part of it.
If, by wrestling with the memoir issues of truthful telling, spending hours on fruitless research and extensively editing to give Sparky her own owlish voice, the book helps open up ways of understanding animals on their terms then all the challenges of writing it were well worth the effort!
About Sparky – My Barn Owl Story
Hatched in the UK in August 2017, Sparky is a captive-bred barn owl. Raised by humans, living with them, she accepts them as essential to her life, benefiting from the security they can provide, but suffering under the uncertainty they can inflict.
And here, thanks to her current human, t-raay-cee, Sparky recounts her unique story. By turns heart warming and disturbing, Sparky offers an owl’s-eye view of her relationship with her human mates and her search for a special human to bond with lifelong.
Launch Details:
Join Tracey & Sparky for the launch of their book. Friday 22 May, 7-9pm at Blackwell Grange Hotel, Darlington. Free event but places limited so please contact traceyiceton@hotmail.co.uk if you would like to attend. Tea, coffee and cake provided plus the chance to meet the book’s star, Sparky, and see her in action.
You can also catch Tracey at the Baytree Owl and Raptor Centre, Spalding, Lincolnshire 24 May 10-4pm; Tracey and Sparky will both be at the Sedgefield Farmers Market, Sedgefield 7 June 8.30-12.30, at Drakes Bookshop Stockton on Tees 9 July 7-9pm and at the World of James Herriot Thirsk on 4 August. Tracey is also appearing at Potters World Lanchester Garden Centre Durham on 20 June and 18 July, and at Turbary Woods Owl and Bird of Prey Centre Preston on 1 August
See www.traceyiceton.co.uk for details and more upcoming events as they are announced.
Sparky – My Barn Owl Story – Purchase Link
Tracey Iceton Biography
Tracey Iceton is the author of four previous books. Her Celtic Colours Trilogy (2016-2019, Cinnamon Press ) tells the story of a hundred years of Troubles in Ireland, following one family through four generations of the conflict from the Easter Rising to the Brexit Vote. Rock God Complex: The Mickey Hunter Story (2020, Cinnamon Press) recounts the exploits of Crown & Kingdom’s legendary guitarist Mickey Hunter.
Iceton’s articles and short stories have appeared in national and international journals, magazines and anthologies. She has won or been shortlisted in several notable writing competitions. Her doctorate, Troubles Women (2017, Northumbria University), was a practice-led project exploring the portrayal of female paramilitary protagonists in Troubles fiction.
Iceton’s latest book, Sparky: My Barn Owl Tale (2026, Cinnamon Press) is Sparky’s semi-(auto)biographical account of life before, and since, she and Tracey met in 2022.
Formerly an English and creative writing teacher, Tracey continues to help emerging writers, offering mentoring and editing. But most of her time is divided between home life with her husband, cats and birds of prey, animal rescue volunteering and running, which she took up in case she ever needs to chase a furred or feathered friend.
